The oft-cited figure of 22 veteran suicides a day comes from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affair's 2012 Suicide Data Report. The report, which analyzed death certificate data from 21 states from 1999-2011, stated that "an estimated 22 Veterans will have died from suicide each day in the calendar year 2010." Due to the statistical issues associated with sampling, however, the report also "recommended that the estimated number of veterans be interpreted with caution due to the use of data from a sample of states and existing evidence of uncertainty in veteran identifiers on U.S. death certificates."

That said, the number of veteran suicides is still quite high. In early 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported that veteran suicides are "roughly 50 percent higher than the rate among other civilians with similar demographic characteristics," although noting that the problem was complicated by the fact that the "rate was slightly higher among veterans who never (emphasis: ours) deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, suggesting that the causes extend beyond the trauma of war."

Regardless of whether the problem of suicide can ever be solved, the real strength of the #22PushupChallenge is that its spirit is in wanting to show veterans that they're cared about and not forgotten, whether by civilian gym rats or Hollywood actors.